It’s LesbosNoir in Blogland!https://lesbosnoir.wordpress.com
a lesbian-themed weblogMon, 04 May 2009 19:19:48 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/4ccce217c991eef4029fb52f636d4fc6?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngIt’s LesbosNoir in Blogland!https://lesbosnoir.wordpress.com
What Took You So Long? (Can I Get a Witness? redux)https://lesbosnoir.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/what-took-you-so-long-can-i-get-a-witness-redux/
https://lesbosnoir.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/what-took-you-so-long-can-i-get-a-witness-redux/#respondMon, 04 May 2009 19:19:48 +0000http://lesbosnoir.wordpress.com/?p=229

Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard’s former church disclosed Friday that the gay sex scandal that caused his downfall extends to a young male church volunteer who reported having a sexual relationship with Haggard—a revelation that comes as Haggard tries to repair his public image.Brady Boyd, who succeeded Haggard as senior pastor of the 10,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, told The Associated Press that the man came forward to church officials in late 2006 shortly after a Denver male prostitute claimed to have had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard.

Boyd said an “overwhelming pool of evidence” pointed to an “inappropriate, consensual sexual relationship” that “went on for a long period of time…it wasn’t a one-time act.” Boyd said the man was in his early 20s at the time. He said he was certain the man was of legal age when it began.

Reached Friday night, Haggard declined to comment and said all interviews would have to be arranged through a publicist for HBO, which is airing a documentary about him this month.

Boyd said the church reached a legal settlement to pay the man for counseling and college tuition, with one condition being that none of the parties involved discuss the matter publicly.

It was only a matter of time, I suppose, before these stories hit the news. I’m not surprised, and I don’t think anyone who knows what it is like to be in the closet is surprised either.

For those who either don’t get it or are still shallow enough to laugh and point—perhaps too loudly—the closet and all the baggage that comes with it is a lonely and claustrophobic place to live your life. What’s worse, the more you try to stay in there, bolting the door shut against the real world and perhaps holding your family, your wife, or your children hostage with you, the worse it is when you finally come out. Meanwhile you torture yourself with denial and the instruments you use to enable the denial like booze or pills until the pressure becomes too much. It’s like trying to compress water—you can’t do it—or it comes out in catastrophic ways.

I don’t know Ted Haggard personally, but I know a lot of people like him, and for a while I was in there with him. Fortunately I had a family that didn’t judge me—even though I was irrationally sure they would—and I felt strongly enough in my spiritual beliefs that I was able to let go of the community I grew up with and embrace another one that I knew would welcome me. I was fortunate. For whatever reason, real or imagined, Ted Haggard was not. And now he is paying for it. He already has lost something he valued—his spiritual community—and he has endured the hatred, scorn, and mockery that came with his public outing. And while I may have been angry with him for his hypocrisy and his inability to accept the fact that being gay is hard-wired at the factory, so to speak, I always knew what he was dealing with.

So let me say this to him, speaking as one gay man who’s been out of the closet since he was 22 and who spent the ten years before that very aware I was in it: it’s okay, Ted, to come out now. I don’t approve or condone your denials or the harm you’ve caused your family, your children, your church, or those who believed you when you said it was a one-time thing; but then, we’ve all done that. The thing you need to do is to make amends. Don’t apologize for being gay, apologize for your actions. Don’t deny what you are, but acknowledge who you are to those who mean the most to you. What you did in the past must be made right with no excuses, and you must shun the false hope of the religious alchemists who say that you can be made straight. There is nothing wrong with being gay, and besides, you can’t turn lead into gold if you’re gold already.

Ted Haggard has a lot of growing up to do. Being in the closet keeps you in the dark about what it’s like to live in the world as a whole person, and once you get out, the light can be disorienting. That’s okay, too. He’s going to stumble and perhaps try to get back in. But pretty soon, he will discover that once you get used to it, you stop thinking of yourself in the terms of gay, straight, or whatever. You are just you.

This undated image provided by the Richmond (Calif.) Police Department shows Josue Gonzalez, 21, who is wanted on a $1 million warrant for gang rape, kidnapping and carjacking. (AP Photo/Richmond Police Department)

Associated Press

RICHMOND, Calif.—Two men and two teens have been arrested on suspicion of gang-raping a woman last month in the San Francisco Bay area while allegedly taunting her for being a lesbian, police said Thursday.

Officers arrested Humberto Hernandez Salvador at his Richmond home Wednesday night, Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan said. The 31-year-old is being held without bail on gang rape, kidnapping and carjacking charges.

Police on Wednesday also arrested a 15-year-old Richmond boy and a 16-year-old Hercules boy, who were being held at a juvenile detention center on similar charges. Their names were not released.

Josue Gonzalez, 21, turned himself in Thursday after police announced they were searching for him. He was wanted on a $1 million arrest warrant on charges of gang rape, kidnapping and carjacking.

Gagan said Gonzalez asked for an attorney when he turned himself in but said nothing about his alleged role in the attack.

Police would not detail each person’s alleged involvement in the attack but said tips from local residents led to the arrests.

Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked on Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker. The alleged attackers made comments indicating they knew she was a lesbian, police said.

Authorities have characterized the case as a hate crime. Police said the victim lives openly with a female partner.

The 45-minute attack started when one of the men approached the woman in the street, struck her with a blunt object, ordered her to disrobe and sexually assaulted her with the help of the others, according to detectives.

When the group saw another person approaching, they forced the victim back into her car and took her to a burned-out apartment building. She was raped again inside and outside the vehicle and left naked outside the building while the alleged assailants took her wallet and drove off in her car, police said.

Faggot better run, learn to run, ’cause daddy’s home
His sweet lil’ boy just a little too sweet
Every night the man showed the faggot what a real man should be
The man and the faggot will never see
For so many can’t even perceive a real man
Tell me

Not that the faggot didn’t find a woman fine and beautiful
He admired desired their desires
He wanted love from strong hands
The faggot wanted the love of a man

His mother would pray
Save him, save him, save him from this life
His mother would pray
Save him, save him, save him from this life

Go to church, boy
Faggot you’re just a prisoner of your own perverted world
No picket fence acting like a bitch, that’s all he sees
Ain’t that what faggot means
No love dreams
Only the favors sweet Michael performed for money to eat
‘Cause the man kicked the faggot out the house at 16
Amen, mother let it be

Before long he was crowned QUEEN for all the world to see
Bloody body face down
All hail the queen
The wages of sin are surely death
That’s what mama used to say

His mother would pray
Save him, save him, save him from this life
His mother would pray
Save him
Save him from this life
Save him
Save me from this life

His mother would pray
Save him, save him, save him from this life
His mother would pray…

]]>https://lesbosnoir.wordpress.com/2008/12/27/music-break-meshell-ndegeocello-leviticus-faggot/feed/0lesbosnoirHoliday Gift Suggestions: Music and More!https://lesbosnoir.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/holiday-gift-suggestions-music-and-more/
https://lesbosnoir.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/holiday-gift-suggestions-music-and-more/#respondTue, 23 Dec 2008 18:02:28 +0000http://lesbosnoir.wordpress.com/?p=193Here are more gift ideas for that special someone on your list. Just click on the images for details! Happy Holidays!

(Newser) – Arnold Schwarzenegger gave his strongest support yet to gays and lesbians in California yesterday, saying that currently married same-sex couples would remain legally wed and that he hoped the courts would overturn Proposition 8. The ballot initiative, which amended California’s constitution to define marriage as explicitly heterosexual, has left the status of 18,000 gay and lesbian couples’ marriages in doubt.

“It’s unfortunate, obviously, but it’s not the end,” said the California governor, who opposed Proposition 8 but had previously said he believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. Schwarzenegger’s comments came as gay rights advocates took to the streets of California for a fifth consecutive day; hundreds of protesters gathered outside of the megachurch of Rick Warren, who backed the ballot initiative.

L.A.’s Deputy Mayor for Energy and Environment, Nancy Sutley, was today named head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, as appointed by President-elect BarackObama. She is is the first prominent member of the glbt community to earn a senior role in the new administration.